Great Britain won a sweep of all three colours of medal at the world indoor championships in Istanbul. Yamilé Aldama, originally from Havana, Cuba, won gold in the triple jump. Tiffany Porter, from Ypsilanti, USA, won silver in the 60 metres hurdles. And Dwain Chambers, from London, England, won bronze in the 60m. It was a superb night, then, for Team GB, but they will wake on Sunday morning to be greeted by negative headlines in some quarters. "Plastic fantastic" was the phrase some pundits were using to describe their success.

"Of course I feel British," Aldama said after winning the gold with a jump of 14.82m. "I have been in the country for 11 years. What more could you ask? I do everything I have to as a British citizen, my kids are British, 60% of my friends are British. Britain is home." She moved to London, and first applied for her passport, in 2001 after she married a Scotsman she met in Havana. Her husband was imprisoned, and her passport application was denied as a result. She was finally granted British nationality in 2010, and joined the team soon after.

Porter had competed for the USA as a junior, but had an English mother and has always had a British passport. She switched at the start of 2011. She won silver in a time of 7.94sec, behind the Australian Sally Pearson.

Shara Proctor, who broke her own British indoor long jump record with a leap of 6.86m while qualifying for Sunday's final, is another case again. She was born in Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory that is not recognised by the International Olympic Committee. The only way she can compete at the 2012 Olympics is if she uses the British passport to which she is entitled as an Anguillan citizen.

Those three stories are all so different that ignorance is the only excuse for branding the athletes together as "plastic Brits". "It's unfair," said Chambers, who won bronze in 6.60sec behind the USA's Justin Gatlin. "They've become eligible to compete for our country and they are great role models. I don't consider them plastic Brits. They are human beings, they are athletes, and they are here to help represent our country and get us medals and that's what is the most important thing."